Collapsible tote boxes



Oct. 25, 1966 J. E. SUCHODOLSKI COLLAPSIBLE TOTE BOXES :3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 13, 1964 Era 1.

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INVENTOR. JOHN E. SUCHODOLSK/ BY fOl VLEP, A/A/055 a GAMfiE/ELL 25, 1966 J. E. sucHonbLsKl 3,281,050

CQLLAPSIBLE TOTE BOXES 13 Sheets-Sheet 8 Filed Aug. 13, 1964 INVENTOR. JOHN E. .SZ/C'fi/ODOASK/ BY ran 45 g GAME/FELL Oct. 25, 1966 J. E. SUCHODOLSKI 3,281,050

COLLAPSIBLE TOTE BOXES 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Aug. 13, 1964 INVENTOR. JOHN E. SUCA/ODOLSK/ BY ram. 5?, m/aaaf a GAME/FELL A r TOP/VE/JC United States Patent Ofilice 3,281,050 Patented Oct. 25, 1966 3,281,050 COLLAPSIBLE TOTE BOXES John Edward Suchodolski, Anaheim, Calif., assignor to Menasha Corporation, a corporation of Wisconsin Filed Aug. 13, 1964, Ser. No. 389,249 3 Claims. (Cl. 229-37) This invention relates to boxes formed of corrugated board, and more particularly to rugged collapsible containers used to transport merchandise.

As the growth of chain stores has increased, the centralization of purchasing, warehousing and related functions has created a whole series of practical servicing problems. There are a number of department store chains, for example, which have 25 to 50 retail outlets located within trucking distance of their central warehousing facilities. In most cases, aside from the normal stock carried by the retail outlets, the warehouse receives orders from the various stores which are filled and dispatched to the remote stores by trucks. The warehousing facilities provided by some of these chains are extensive. Moreover, the technical problems of assembling the diverse products and goods ordered by particular stores are substantial. Many such warehouses use endless-belt conveyors that move through the warehouse to collect the particular goods ordered by a retail store for dispatching by truck.

In such warehouse installations, it is desirable to use containers on the conveyor belts as collectors for the articles and devices ordered by individual stores. Collapsible boxes of one sort or another have been tried in connection with such central distribution systems but most have proved unsatisfactory due to one or more reasons. In some cases, the boxes have been too flimsy which permitted the goods to be damaged. In other cases, the boxes have not been easy to stack during transportation to the outlying stores or easily knocked down for storage after use. Yet, in other cases, the boxes have been too expensive.

The present invention overcomes .a number of these disadvantages of prior art collapsible containers. In doing so, it provides a collapsible tote box which is easy to fabricate from a unitary piece of corrugated board, economical to manufacture, sturdy, which can be stacked uniformly and is efficiently collapsible for storage.

The collapsible containers are usually moved along the conveyor system on their sides. For this reason, it is necessary to have thick sides, normally obtained by using more than one thickness of corrugated board for the sides. The present collapsible tote box is formed with double thickness sides but in a way to avoid exposed or open upper-edges on the box. The top is easily moved over this smooth edgeobtained by folding a part of the container blank. By this means, there is provided double thickness sides which do not have to be taped to avoid cutting a persons hands who handles the boxes or tearing clothes or breaking frangible merchandise.

The collapsible tote box also has a series of bottom flaps which are folded overlying or interleaved with each other to provide a strong, multi-thickness bottom. Cooperating with the box after it is set up for receiving goods is a rectangular top having collapsible side pieces. The top and the tote box itself may be collapsed flat for easy storage.

One of the features of the invention is the double thickness sides having a smooth exposed edge.

Another feature of the invention pertains to folding the double thickness sides to form the rectangular box without stressing the corners of the box. In many prior art devices, particularly where double thicknesses corrugated board are needed, the corners of the outer corrugated board are placed under a substantial local stress since the outer layer must traverse a larger circumferential distance than the inner layer. This stressed condition, which accelerates the breakdown of the box, is prevented in the present invention by slitting the inner layer of the corrugated board along the corner fiold lines so that the outer layer is not under stress at the corners.

Another feature of the invention pertains to the bottom flaps which are creased along staggered fold lines so that the bottom (after being put in place by folding the flaps) lies just interior of the bottom edge of the sides of the box. This permits a series of the boxes to be stacked efiiciently, one on top of the other, without the normal instability which has attended such stacking in the past.

Broadly speaking, the present invention is a collapsible container formed from a unitary piece of corrugated board comprising a rectangular body having double thickness sides and smooth upper edges, means to relieve local stresses at the corners of the container and a plurality of bottom flaps defined by fold lines which are attached to the lower edges of the body.

The present invention also envisages a method for forming a collapsible box having double thickness sides of corrugated boards comprising the steps of a unitary blank of corrugated board including inner and outer side members, applying adhesive to the facing surface of the inner and outer side members, folding the inner and outer side members along a fold line to press them together to effect a bond, forming the rectangular body of the box by folding the bonded inner and outer side members along parallel fold lines, aflixing the free ends of the side members together and folding the bottom flaps at right angles to the body in sequence to form the bottom of the box.

These and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention may be more fully understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a unitary piece of corrugated board cut and marked with appropriate fold lines to permit the collapsible tote box constituting the present invention to be formed;

FIG. 2 is a perspective of the unit corrugated board of FIG. 1 with the outer layer of the double thickness side partially folded over the inner layer;

FIG. 3 is a perspective of the exemplary collapsible tote box after the double thickness sides have been folded and glued but before the box itself has been formed;

FIG. 4 is a perspective of the invention with the bottom flaps lying in planes roughly coincident with th double thickness sides of the box; 7 i

FIG. 5 is a perspective of the collapsible box constituting the present invention with three of the four bottom flaps folded into place and the collapsed top spacedapart from the top of the tote box;

FIG. 6 is a section view taken along line 66 of FIG. 5 to illustrate the double thickness side and smooth upper edge; and,

FIG. 7 is a perspective of the assembled tote box and top constituting the present invention.

The collapsible tote box is formed from a single piece of corrugated board 10, which may be of an A, B or C flute size. B fltute corrugated board has been found to work quite well in practice.

. 3 The unitary board has a pair of parallel fold lines 11 and 12 roughly parallel to its upper and lower edges, 16a and 16b respectively. Fold lines 11 and 12 coincide with the upper and lower edges of the finished collapsible tote box. I

There is also provided on the unitary corrugated board ,10 a second series of parallel fold lines 13. These fold lines 13 are approximately at right angles to fold lines 11 and '12 anddefine, along with the outer side edges 14 v and 15 of the corrugated board 10, the four corners of the collapsible tote box after it' is assembled. The interior fold lines 13, forming three adjacent corners of the tote box, have slots 18 formed in their interior sides along fold lines 11 and 12. These slots are interrupted by a short spacing designated as 19 and then are continued .as 18a beyond fold line 12 to the upper edge 16a of the corrugated board 10. The major part of this continuation of the slots is designated as 20 and provides the bottom flaps 31 for the tote box. a

FIG. 2 illustrates the first step in assembling the collapsible tote box. The precut corrugated board 10 is folded along line 11 to provide an outer side layer 21 and an inner layer 22. After the double thickness side 23 is formed, the layers 21 and 22 are adhesively joined by a fast drying waterproof glue. This stage in theformation of the collapsible tote box is illustrated in FIG. 3.

Thereafter, the device is folded along fold lines 13 to form the container as illustrated in FIG. 4. At this point, the protruding flap 26, which extends-from the outer layer 21 of one of the sides 23, is afilxed to the other free edge of the tote box'side by staples 27.

If the collapsible tote box is to be stored after being assembled as illustrated in FIG. 4, it is folded flat so that a number of them can be stacked in a minimum space. Whenever a tote box is to be used, however, it is opened as illustrated in FIG. 4 and the bottom flaps 31 are sequentially folded (as illustrated in FIG. 5). The last flap is held in place by an easily removable piece of adhesive tape. The tote box is then placed on a conveyor belt on one of the double thickness sides and loaded as it passes stations for various products, devices and. equipment which have been ordered by a particular retail store.

When the box reaches the end of the conveyor belt system, a collapsible top 36, illustrated in FIG. 5, is

opened to the rectangular shape illustrated in FIG. 7

and placed over the smooth upper edge 17 of the tote box defined by the fold line 11. It will be observed that slots 18 and 18ain the inside layers 22 of sides 23 relieve any stress that might be placed on the outer layer 21. The width of the slots 18 and 18a are selected when it is loaded or unloaded. However, they act as stress relievers to insure relatively long life for the reusable tote boxes.

It will also be observed, particularly in connection -with FIG. 1, that the fold lines 12 which define the -flaps 3-1 for the collapsible tote box, in fact, are fold lines which lie in closely adjacent parallel planes. Fold lines 12a are displaced a small amount from fold lines 12b so that in fioldin'g the bottom flaps 31 to form the box illustrated in FIG. 7, there is provided a flat surface .readily adapted to stacking. This is because the outer edge of the corrugated board (the bottom edge of layer 21) extends slightly below the folded position of the bottom most one of flaps 31.

FIG. 6 illustrates a section of the double thickness wall of corrugated board 23 iormed by layers 21 and 22 and joined together by waterproof adhesive, the latter 4 indicated generally at 24. FIG. 6 also illustrates the smooth edge 17 overlying the fold line 11.

The collapsible tote box constituting the present invention provides simple and economical means for collecting and transporting clothes and other products in and around a central warehouse. It not only has proved adaptable to a variety of warehousing arrangements, but it has proved to be reusable more times .than those prior art collapsible boxes which it replaces.

While the collapsible tote box has been described with respect to a particular application, it should be apparent that certain variations can be envisaged by persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. For this reason, the invention should be limited only to the extent of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A blank for forming a collapsible container comprising:

(a) a generally rectangular corrugated board having an upper edge, a lower edge, and two side edges;

(b) upper and lower told lines parallel to the upper and lower edges of the board and extending between the side edges to divide the board into lower, central .and upper sections of about equal size but with the lower section exceeding the height of the central section by at least the thickness of the blank;

(c) three slots perpendicular to the upper edge and extending from that edge to points slightly below the lower fold line to define four flaps, the alternate ones of which are substantially equal in size;

(d) said lower fold line being staggered to define adjacent flaps; and,

(e) three slots formed in the central section in line with the respective slots in the lower section.

2. A blank for forming a collapsible container comprising: i

(a) a generally rectangular corrugated board having an upper edge, a lower edge .and two side edges;

(b) upper and lower fold lines parallel to the upper and lower edges of the board and extending between the side edges to divide the board into lower,

central and upper sections, with the lower section exceeding the height ofthe central section by at least the thickness of the blank;

(c) three slots perpendicular to the upper edges and extending from that edge to points slightly below the lower fold line to define four flaps in the upper section, the alternate ones of which are substantially equal in size; and,

(d) said lower fold line being staggered to define adjacent flaps.

3. A blank for forming a double thickness collapsible container having an outer wall and an inner wall oompnsing:

(a) a generally rectangular corrugated board having an upper edge, a lower edge and two side edges;

(b) upper and lower fold lines parallel to the upper 'and lower edges of the board and extending between the side edges to divide the board into lower, central and upper sections, with the lower section which forms the outer wall exceeding the height of the central section which forms the inner wall by at least the thickness of the blank;

' (c) three slots perpendicular to the upper edge and extending from that edge to points slightly below the lower fold line to define four flaps in the upper section, the alternateone-s of which are substantially equal in size; and, z

(d) three slots formed in the central section which forms the inner wall in line with the respective slots in the lower section and proportioned to define closed interior-corners when the sides of the container are approximately at right angles to each other.

(References on following page) 5 6 References Cited by the Examiner 3,027,060 3/1962 Beder 229-37 X UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,178,093 4/ 1965 Wasyluka 229-37 ,25 1 1,158,130 10/1915 Hawkins. 3,189 1 6/1965 McFarland 229 51 2,704,181 3/1955 Hemlerson et a]. 22937 5 JOSEPH LECLAIR Primary Examiner 2,718,348 9/1955 Montfort 22937 2 00 2 ly 37 D. T-

ASSZ SHUIL Examiner. 

1. A BLANK FOR FORMING A COLLAPSIBLE CONTAINER COMPRISING: (A) A GENERALLY RECTANGULAR CORRUGATED BOARD HAVING AN UPPER EDGE, A LOWER EDGE, AND TWO SIDE EDGES; (B) UPPER AND LOWER FOLD LINES PARALLEL TO THE UPPER AND LOWER EDGES OF THE BOARD AND EXTENDING BETWEEN THE SIDE EDGES TO DIVIDE THE BOARD INTO LOWER, CENTRAL AND UPPER SECTIONS OF ABOUT EQUAL SIZE BUT WITH THE LOWER SECTION EXCEEDING THE HEIGHT OF THE CENTRAL SECTION BY AT LEAST THE THICKNESS OF THE BLANK; (C) THREE SLOTS PERPENDICULAR TO THE UPPER EDGE AND EXTENDING FROM THAT EDGE TO POINTS SLIGHTLY BELOW THE LOWER FOLD LINES TO DEFINE FOUR FLAPS, THE ALTERNATE ONE OF WHICH ARE SUBSTANTIALLY EQUAL IN SIZE; (D) SAID LOWER FOLD LINE BEING STAGGERED TO DEFINE ADJACENT FLAPS; AND (E) THREE SLOTS FORMED IN THE CENTRAL SECTION IN LINE WITH THE RESPECTIVE SLOTS IN THE LOWER SECTION. 